MAKING SOLAR PANELS BETTER

Solar Industry Anxious Over Defective Panels

Todd Woody, may 28, 2013 (NY Times)

“…Worldwide, testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers are reporting…[solar panel failures a short time into their expected 25-year life span] and say the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis…[But there] are no industry wide figures…And when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements often keep the manufacturer’s identity secret, making accountability in the industry all the more difficult…[B]illions of dollars that have financed solar installations, from desert power plants to suburban rooftops [are at stake], on the premise that solar panels will more than pay for themselves over a quarter century…

“The quality concerns have emerged just after a surge in solar…[C]apacity exploded from 83 megawatts in 2003 to 7,266 megawatts in 2012…Most of the concerns over quality center on China, home to the majority of the world’s solar panel manufacturing capacity…After incurring billions of dollars in debt to accelerate production that has sent solar panel prices plunging since 2009, Chinese solar companies are under extreme pressure to cut costs…Other brand-name manufacturers, they said, have shut down production lines and subcontracted the assembly of modules to smaller makers…”

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“…[SolarBuyer] discovered defect rates of 5.5 percent to 22 percent during audits of 50 Chinese factories over the last 18 months…Some Chinese manufacturers acknowledge that quality has become a problem [and Non-Chinese manufacturers have had quality problems as well]…[A] review of 30,000 installations in Europe by the German solar monitoring firm Meteocontrol found 80 percent were underperforming. Testing of six manufacturers’ solar panels at two Spanish power plants by Enertis Solar in 2010 found defect rates as high as 34.5 percent…

“…First Solar, one of the United States’ biggest manufacturers, has set aside $271.2 million to cover the costs of replacing defective modules it made in 2008 and 2009…[China’s] Yingli, the world’s largest solar panel maker since 2012…now offers a comprehensive insurance policy to customers and has established its own testing laboratory in the San Francisco area…”

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